Search This Blog

Shelf Challenge 2013

Since I started a new job on April 1st, I thought joining the 2013 Shelf Challenge would be a great way to start learning my new collection. If you're not familiar with Shelf Challenge, it's run by Matthew Winner (a 2013 Mover and Shaker, woot!) to celebrate School Library Month. In Matthew's words, here's how it works:Your mission, if you choose to accept it:

Select a section of your library collection to read throughout the month of April.

Make it manageable and appealing. (I'm planning to read the all of the "H" books in our everybody section, which will include Henkes and maybe some other unexpected favorites.)

Try to read every book in that section over the course of the month.

For everybody books, read them
cover to cover. For fiction, read the dust jackets or back cover
descriptions. For Nonfiction/Informational, choose a section of Dewey
and go nuts.

Share selected gems (and cringes) through a favorite social media outlet, such as Shelfari, GoodReads, or through your blog or Twitter feed (use #shelfchallenge to connect with others).

I had originally planned to do the letter X, but it turns out that we only had one book on the shelf in our everybody section under X and I didn't really fancy reading about the X-Men, so I switched to Z. You're probably thinking I'm really lazy now, but I didn't want to take on too much with my new job as I've got storytimes and summer reading planning and all of that good stuff to take care of as well.

Here are some of the more memorable books I read:

The first one was The Pumpkin Blanket, a story about a little girl who sacrifices her beloved baby quilt to warm some of the pumpkins in her family's garden. It is very reminiscent of The Giving Tree and other stories about sacrifice. These are not favorites of mine, but are worth knowing for those patrons who do enjoy that type of story.

One noteworthy story was Countdown to Grandma's House by Debra Mostow Zakarin, which portrays a girl's HUGE excitement about going to grandma's house. Rather than a stereotypical "Granny," the grandmother in this story is relatively young and enjoys activities like gardening, painting nails, and flashlight games under the covers.

Another in my to-read pile was Baby Shower by Jane Breskin Zalben. This was the third book on the shelf and the first one that I had read previously. As with the first time I read this book, I was left with the distinct impression that it would be quite confusing to young children. Older children (elementary age) who are planning to attend a baby shower will find no information useful but may enjoy the literal "baby shower" that occurs in the story. Speaking of Zalben, the first one of hers I would recommend was Hey, Mama Goose. At my old library, I had many regular patrons who were (aspiring or current) elementary school teachers and I could see passing this one on for fairy tale or nursery rhyme units.

Zalben turned up again in Saturday Night at the Beastro. As a full picture book, I think this one is pretty lacking (2.6 stars average on GoodReads), but there is one section that would make for a fun read-aloud around Halloween. I'd start with the section that begins "This evening's food is, of course,/cuisine prepared without remorse" which leads into a long list of disgusting food. Teachers may enjoy the opportunity to introduce some of the vocabulary words which will be unfamiliar to most children.

A fun discovery was A Zeal of Zebras, an abcedary of collective nouns. Each spread also includes non-fiction information about the animals. One of my favorites was "an embarrrassment of pandas," which has striking black, white, and red artwork with just a hint of green bamboo. Also appropriate was an "ostentation of peacocks," which suggests you replace your guard dog with a peacock. Fun fact: the staffers of Woop Studio (this book's authors) got started doing graphic design for the Harry Potter movies.

I have been fascinated by books with moving parts since I was a kid, so I thoroughly enjoyed Knick-Knack Paddywhack! as done by Paul Zelinsky. I had the opportunity several years ago to see Zelinsky speak at Western Michigan University during one of the Youth Literature Seminars and it was a fantastic experience. I hope they still do those seminars although I'm now on the other side of the state. Another Zelinsky treat was his version of Rumpelstiltskin, a Caldecott Honor book. Gorgeous!

One that surprised me with its touching words was Our Tree Named Steve by Alan Zewibel. You will recgonize David Catrow's distinctive artwork, but it is very subdued to go with the sad ending of this story. I have a particular fondness for one of the trees in the yard of my childhood home so this resonated with me.

Stats
Total Number of books read: 41 (We have about 10,000 titles in our everybody section at my new library.)
Books I Had Read Before: 4
Total Number of pages: I was told there would be no math, but 41*32=1312, so that's an estimate
Mistakes found: 2! 1 book had been fixed with the pages out of order and I noticed that Lights on Broadway had this line in the text: "starred in [title of show], The Full Monty, The Little Mermaid" on the H is for House spread.

At first I was disappointed that there weren't more gems in the collection, but maybe this is an exercise in reminding me of just how difficult a great picture book is to find (and to create, no doubt).

I like to do a lot of nursery rhymes with the parachute for a few reasons:Parents/kids are more likely to participate in activities where the content is already familiarI already know them so I don't have to learn a whole bunch of material at once (just being honest here)Easy for the families to replicate this activities at home with whatever props they might have. If they (or you!) don't have a parachute, a bed sheet or blanket can be substituted easily. Even a beach towel would work for one parent and one child to play together. This is my mean reason and I tried to hammer this in at all three programs I did the past two weeks! Parachute …

One of my favorite things to do in my library is create displays. I thought it might be helpful if I shared the calendar that I drew up to make sure I don't miss any of the "must-do" displays. It is so helpful if you can take people over to a seasonal display versus trying to look up in the catalog or find Easter books or whatever. I hope this helps any new librarians who might be overwhelmed by the process of marketing your collection!

As a general rule, I tend to keep displays up for about 3-4 weeks or if I run out of books all together. One tip I'd recommend if you have the space for multiple displays is to change one display in each space every week and rotate around the youth department like that. For example, one week you put up a new picture books display, then nonfiction, then YA/teen, etc. Don't forget to raid your CD and DVD collections for a multi-category display.

Here's one of my favorite parachute activities! I actually mentioned it a few months ago when talking about my summer parachute playtime but it's become a storytime staple since. We've been doing this here at my 2 and 3 year old storytimes and it's a great activity that I thought deserved its own post. I learned the song "Sleeping Bunnies" from Mary and I had the idea to adapt it to a parachute activity.

Here are the words:Sleeping BunniesSee the little bunnies sleeping til it's nearly noon. Come and let us gently wake them with a merry tune. Oh, how are still. Are they ill? Wake up soon. (Here I yell "WAKE UP BUNNIES!" and the kids shake the parachute.)